


Take My Time

by 22deadpool22, PocketWatchOfStars



Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Band Kid Virgil, Chronic Pain, Human AU, Jock Logan, Jock Patton, Logan sanders has chronic pain, Logic | Logan Sanders Angst, Logic | Logan Sanders Needs a Hug, M/M, Multi, Poet Deceit, Short roman, Tags Contain Spoilers, Whump, rival Patton and Logan, unintentional self-harm, vollyball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23824093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/22deadpool22/pseuds/22deadpool22, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PocketWatchOfStars/pseuds/PocketWatchOfStars
Summary: The adventurous lives of five teenagers in a world full of soulmates, sports, sad boi hours, and high doses of misunderstandings.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, DLAMP, Eventual DLAMP
Comments: 5
Kudos: 51





	1. I Spend Every Second Stuck In A Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Mention of the word suicide (the volleyball players are doing a warm-up known as suicides), allusions to fighting (Patton recounts on fights that have happened between Logan and himself), rivalries (Patton and Logan have been rivals for most of their life).

As soon as Patton stepped out of his car (an electric blue Volkswagen he and his dad restored last summer) he was greeted by his ever flamboyant, incredibly short soulmate Roman practically screeching “Dead Mom.” Not to say his singing was bad, he had the voice of a god, but at this moment he wasn't trying whatsoever. Roman being the trend follower he was, had spent many of his evenings recently obsessing over, listening to, and learning all of the Betelgeuse soundtrack.

“Hiya Roman!”  
“Sup Pat!”  
“Well the sky of course! How are you?” Patton quipped back, cheery as ever. Especially when around his soulmate.  
“I'm doing fine. How about you?” Roman’s smile was so bright Patton’s heart skipped a beat (but you definitely don’t know that it did).  
“Absolutely peachy! Have anything fun coming up soon?” Patton stumbled over his words, I mean he was talking with his absolutely amazing soulmate!  
“Actually I do, I have a choir performance coming up next saturday!” If Patton got any prouder he might explode.  
“That's awesome hun(ey) I'll add it to my calendar!” Patton pulled his phone out and added the date, almost dropping his phone in his excitement.  
“Shoot we need to head to class, bell is in like 3 minutes and your class is at the opposite end of the school. ”  
“Oh your right.” Patton grinned bashfully.  
“Later Patton.” Roman turned and walked off with Patton standing there, like the lovesick fool he was just watching him walk away.

Eventually Patton walked into his first class of the day: English. It appears that fate was not planning for Patton to have a good day because who took the seat next to him but the one and only Logan Anderson. How the heck was Patton supposed to focus on class when Logan frickin’ Anderson was sitting next to him?

It all started back in middle school when both Patton and Logan decided to join the volleyball ball team. Patton was super excited because “New friends are sooo great!” while on the other side of the spectrum (or court) Logan was not interested in friends, his only goal was to be the very best, and friends were in his opinion a “waste of time.” Patton decided his only option was to be friends with him, partially to prove him wrong. But for some reason that Patton could never figure out Logan would not accept his friendship, no matter what. He was always making snarky comments and just acting like he was better. They were both great players and ended up being the team's two star players. They would always switch between being the best player on the team, this seemed to make Logan incredibly upset. Patton just could not understand why he was so upset that he had good players on his team. It just meant that they had a better team.

When they made it to 8th grade and could finally apply to be team captain it was a natural choice for both of them to try out for the spot. While Logan was the slightly better player at the time Patton had more friends on the team. Patton ended up winning and Logan was more than a little upset, and he may have yelled a bit (or a bunch) at Patton. The rest of the season the tension was so thick that they were lucky to actually finish a game without Logan storming off, some insult on his lips almost always aimed at Patton. Patton was decidedly not happy about the situation and still wanted to know why Logan was so against having friends, he never wanted the rivalry to go this far.

Freshman year of high school came around quickly and they both tried out and unsurprisingly both made it onto the varsity team. Since they were the only freshman to make the team they ended up having to work together a fair amount. Having their rivalry seemed to be helping them improve, there was nothing more motivating than wanting to be the best. The coach, an energetic man in his mid 30’s was no stranger to rivalry’s and often ended up pairing the two of them together for the majority of their partner drills. It made Patton happy because he was finally getting to learn more about the mysterious man, or rather boy.

all good things must come to an end. Patton was deemed the best freshman to play on the varsity team and Logan just lost it saying something about how he had worked so much harder and how he deserved it more and how he wasn’t sure how much longer he could play for. This made Patton upset for good reason, he spent years working on his skills, spent his summers doing training camps, he was trying to be the best he could be, but also because he was really concerned for Logan. Logan Anderson may not want anything to do with Patton, but Patton was never going to try and intentionally hurt someone.

The last year had been pretty uneventful, just Logan not talking to anyone about what happened and the two of them getting more and more competitive. This year is going to be different. He knew it was. They are juniors now and that means they can be elected for team captain and only one of them was going to win.

“Shit” Patton said, shaking his curls in an effort to get out of memory lane, he looked up at the clock only to realize with annoyance he had just missed 30 minutes of class and it was all because he couldn’t stop thinking of Logan. What was he gonna do now that he missed over half of his class? Maybe Valerie could lend him her notes? He’d ask at lunch but until then he had to focus on the lecture.

Patton tried his best to take notes but it was hard to follow explanations when he didn’t know the topic. As soon as the bell rang Patton was out of his seat and was pushing through the student-crowded halls.

In a huff Patton flopped into his seat at the table he and his friends had claimed last year, and dropped his books on the table.  
“Valerie, I did it again.”  
Valerie looked up with an annoyed expression tucking her hair behind her ear.  
“Seriously Pat this is the 3rd time this year and we've only been in school for two weeks!”  
“Yeah, he just really gets on my nerves.” Patton was toying with his key chain, it wasn’t like him to zone out, except about Logan apparently.  
“Fine, how much of class did you miss?” She sighed.  
“About two thirds.”  
“Here, only copy down what you missed.” Valerie passed him her English folder before turning back to her pasta. Just as Patton copied the last word Roman flounced up to the lunch table.  
“ My love and my platonic princess! I have arrived!”  
Valerie yanks Patton’s notebook out of his hands and hands it to Roman.  
“He did it again!” Patton definitely did not let out at an offended gasp at the tone of her voice.  
“Again?!” Roman sat down with a huff. “ You think about him so much people are gonna start thinking you like him or something.”  
“Ooh is this a fan fic trope I hear?”  
In unison all three of them yell “Shut up Ronnie!” not even bothering to check and make sure they knew who is was.  
“ Why are you booing me? I'm right. We all know that you haven't found all of your soulmates. Not to mention one of your soulmate's names starts with an L right?”  
Patton could feel the gears in his head turning, there is no way Logan Anderson could be one of his soulmates.  
“He is kind of hot doe.”  
Wait did Roman just say? Nope, nope, Patton can not do this today.  
“I think I need to go check on the lizards in the uh library? Yeah um too-da-loo.”  
Gosh Patton could not get up any faster. Good thing the library was right down the hall.  
Patton stumbles out of the cafeteria and proceeds to fall straight on his face, almost kissing the shoes of the one and only Logan frickin’ Anderson.  
“Salutations Patton. Would you be in need of a hand?”  
Patton gets to his feet and skitters off while mumbling something along the lines of “uh…no… I'm fine...”

With a pounding heart and spinning thoughts Patton settled into a beanbag in the corner of the library to wait until lunch was over.

After a pop quiz in Pre-Calc and a sleep inducing history class Patton practically pranced down the hall to his last class of the day. Finally a class Patton really enjoys, art.  
“Today’s been really long. I just need this class to be normal.” Patton couldn’t help but think.  
“Today we are going to be working on portraits and we will be doing them in pairs and before you get too excited. I will be choosing them.” Greeted their normally friendly art teacher. The class let out a collective groan, none of them were pleased with this decision.  
“So the groups are as follows… “ Patton zoned out until he heard his own name.  
“Patton and Logan.” He had scarcely processed what he heard when Logan walked up to  
him.  
“ Hello Patton. It seems you’re my partner.”  
“ It appears that you are.” This was supposed to be his good class.  
“Would you like me to get you some ice, you appear to be getting a black eye and you had quite the spill earlier.” Logan questioned, clearly oblivious of Patton’s inner turmoil.  
“ Why are you being nice to me? Don’t you think friends are a waste of time?”  
“ Getting you ice didn’t make us friends does it?” Logan responded his lips pressed into a thin line.  
“I guess not, but I’m fine.”  
“Okay then would you like to choose the medium we do the assignment with or shall I?”  
“ You can choose.”  
“ I quite enjoy watercolor. Would that be fine with you?”  
“Yeah. But only if we use the glittery ones.” Patton was at least going to get this.  
“No. this is for an assignment we will be using profesional materials and glitter is not one of those,”  
“...Fine.” Well there goes absolutely all the fun and his motivation.  
“Now we should probably start.”  
Patton and Logan got out their materials and started working on their rough sketches.  
“You should try starting with the eyes.'' Logan remarked.  
“Ok, I'll give it a shot.”  
While observing Logan's eyes to sketch he starts to realize how green they are. Like oh my god… his eyes were like a new spri-NO Patton was not thinking about how beautiful Logan Andersons eyes were, this is not happening.  
“Patton are you quite alright?”  
“I'm fine… why do you ask?”  
“Your face is bright red.”  
“Uh…” Patton could not be more done with the day if he tried.  
“Alright class is done for today. Make sure to meet up with your partner's outside of class to finish discussing what you are going to do for your project.” The teacher said as she ended the class.

Patton couldn't get out of class any quicker if he were being chased by a bear. He huffed a sigh of relief as he reached the bathroom. He had made it here without running into anyone. Maybe now he can attempt to calm down without anyone interrupting. Patton reached into his bag to grab his signature light blue pen. He starts to write on his arms in hope that one of his soulmates could help him calm down.

“Hey so I'm kinda freaking out can anyone help?” he wrote with slightly shaky hands.  
“ Hello it's me, L. Can you try and breathe for me?” appeared on his left arm in crisp black ink.  
“I’ll try.” Patton started counting his breaths till he calmed his heart rate.  
“I’m good now.”  
“May I ask what happened to make you anxious?”  
“Yeah it's complicated, but … it's just one of my classmates … we have a complicated rivalry and sometimes it just overwhelms me.”  
“I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Have you tried talking to him?”  
“Uhh… not since freshman year.”  
“Maybe give him a second chance?”  
“Ok, thanks, L. Oh by the way could you wash off your arm I don't want our other soulmates to get worried about me.”  
“Of course. Good bye.”

Patton stood and walked over to the sink and rinsing his arms under the cool water, making sure every last trace of ink was gone. After drying off his arms he slung his bag on his shoulder and walked towards the gym. On his way to the gym Patton thought about what L had said. Maybe he should try and talk to Logan again. Patton quickly thought through conversation starters, but unfortunately for him the thoughts left as soon he saw Logan. Luckily for him he didn’t have to look like an idiot for long. The coach came in and ordered quick warm-ups (unfortunately consisting of suicides and laps) because they had a lot of practice today. Luckily for Patton the team captain decision happened at the end of practice and there was a lot to do before that.


	2. You Gotta Do Everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Self deprecating thoughts, pain, food, cursing, and unintentional self-harm.

“Alright everybody put your votes in the box. Your options are Mark, Patton, Logan, and Oscar.” The coach called out, his voice echoing in the large gymnasium. Logan walked over to the table, his sweaty clothes sticking to his back, and pulled out his favorite black pen. After pretending to weigh his options he wrote his name down on the slip of scrap paper and placed it in the box. God he needs this win. He started to walk to the bleachers when he noticed something, or rather someone. 

_Oh fuck, why is Patton Graham walking over to me? He's already talked to me way too many times today._

“Hey, Logan.” Logan steeled himself and faked a polite smile. 

“Salutations, Patton. Shouldn't you be talking to your friends?”

“I just wanted to say you are definitely worthy of the position of team captain.”

“Uh… thanks?” He really wanted to scream. 

**“** So uh I just wanted to say I'm sorry if I did anything to upset you.” Patton was nervously wringing his hands together. What did Patton have to be nervous about? 

“What?” Logan couldn’t stop the bewilderment in his voice from showing.

“Oh , it's just that you don't really seem to like me and I just assumed that I did something wrong.”

“Oh Patt-” 

“Can I have everybody's attention? So I've counted up all the votes and we seem to have a tie between Patton and…”

_Oh, please say my name, please…._

“Oscar.”

_Fuck._

“So we have two options: you two can be co captains or we can do a re vote with only the two of you.” The two boys in question exchanged glances. 

“I'm okay with being co captains.” Patton chirped with a shrug. 

“Same.” Oscar quipped back bobbing his head in a way that would make all the girls swoon

“Then it's decided. Patton and Oscar will be co captains. Thank you all for voting, see y'all at the next practice.” The coach walks away clearly unaware of everything. 

_Of course it was Patton. Why would it be me? It's never me. I suck at everything I can't even manage to stand properly. Fuck, I need to sit down. No I can wait, I have to._

Logan could feel his thoughts spiraling as he stormed out of the gym his thoughts ramping up till they were running a million miles an hour. When he finally made it out of the building’s winding hallways, he slumped against the rough brick walls of the school and let himself slide down to the ground.

_Why did Patton have to steal all of his opportunities? That boy just seems to always get in the way. It's clear he isn't trying as hard as me. I'm so much more dedicated. He's always making friends and just wasting his time. Ugh I need to get home before the sun starts to set._

_The thoughts were still spiraling._

Logan took a deep breath and pushed himself off the ground leaning against the wall for support. 

“Ugh this is so fucking stupid.” Logan mutters to himself for probably the seventh time in the past hour. 

Normally on the walk home from school Logan would be looking in the trees for his favorite birds, but unfortunately he just didn't have the energy for that right now. His whole attention was focused on getting home without crying, because screw toxic masculinity he just wanted to cry. He was just trying to put one foot in front of the other but halfway through his walk home it was just too much. He needed a break before he could continue home. He had pushed himself as far as he could. Thankfully he was able to stumble his way to the neighborhood park where he knew there were benches.

He sat down and slumped into the metal frame of the park bench, his backpack sliding off relieving a small amount of pain but not nearly enough for him to get any relief. Had Logan not been in immense pain he would realize he was jamming a pen into his arm. He wouldn’t remember pulling it out. The ink soaking through his sleeve and the pressure leaving his skin red. It was his signature black pen nevertheless, he’d lament later over the ruined shirt and the wasted ink. He sat on the bench for at least 30 minutes, head in the clouds, his thoughts a raging river, his body thrumming with pain, before he realized he had been stabbing himself with the pen. He calmly caped the pen and put it in his backpack, there was no one around; they wouldn’t know what happened. 

The pain had settled enough for him to make it home, constant waves simmered into a steady stream. He lifted his backpack and decided to carry it by the handle instead of putting it on his back. The rest of the walk home was kind of a blur, his mind focused only on getting home. He carefully pulled his keys out of his bag attempting to not drop them as he shakily unlocked the door.

He stepped into the entryway of his home letting out a sigh of relief. He placed his bag on its hook and walked to his room as fast as he could (which was not very fast.) Immediately laying down on the floor of his room, waiting for his bones to settle and his muscles to relax. Slowly he started to regain awareness as his pain eased. After an hour - or was it two - he was finally able to get into his pajamas, made of a fabric so soft he would probably get teased for it if his peers knew about them. It wasn't until he was slipping on his pajama shirt that he realized the dark black spot from the ink and the red circle around it. 

“Shit.” He had done that, hadn't he. Looking a bit farther down his arm he saw his extremely scared soulmates freaking out over it. This wasn’t what he wanted, he just wanted everything to stop for a while. 

“L, you okay?” Purple Ink. 

“Whats going on?” Gold Ink.

“L, you have to be pushing that pen really hard. The area around it is turning red.” Did they really care? 

“Can you answer us? We were really scared.” Were they pretending? 

“Please answer?” Didn’t they have better things to do?

“Is there anything we can do?” They couldn’t change anything. 

“Do you need us to call someone?” No one would answer. 

“Please talk to us.” You have each other. 

“You know we're here for you.” But he was alone. 

“L, please.” They don’t even know his name. 

_Man I fucked up poor V and J, they don't deserve this. I don’t deserve them._

Logan got out his pen, he couldn’t ignore it even though he wanted to so badly.

“Sorry I caused you distress. I'm doing fine. I just wasn't focusing. I would appreciate it if you would wash off your arms. I don't want anyone to get worried for nothing.” Because that’s what it was wasn’t it? Nothing. 

Logan tensed his muscles and stood up, stumbling down the stairs into the kitchen to get a protein shake (there was no way he was going to be able to fix himself food, much less stomach it tonight.) He checked the bulletin board his family used to communicate and with a heavy heart he read the note left there. 

_Hey Logan, sorry we are going to be late tonight. Your dad has a night shift in the ER and I’m this close to finishing a case. You know the legal world never takes a break. I hope you had a good day at school. Be sure to do your homework -love Mom and Dad._

Logan walked back to his room, why was he always alone, his protein shake in one hand -seemingly made of lead - water in the other. He drank his protein shake grudgingly (why did he even bother) and clambered into bed knowing full well he wasn't going to be able to go to school tomorrow.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Self deprecation (Logan thinks badly of himself and doesn’t think he is good enough), Food (Logan consumes some food), Pain (Logan experiences both emotional and physical pain throughout the whole chapter, the cause of the pain isn’t explained),Cursing (Logan likes to curse a lot.)


	3. Waiting Wanting Me To Speak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for discussion of unintentional sh

Jay sat down at his desk and pulled his sleeve back to reveal a note from his soulmate L. 

“Sorry I caused you distress. I'm doing fine. I just wasn't focusing. I would appreciate it if you would wash off your arms. I don't want anyone to get worried for nothing.” 

_ Yeah, right, he's totally fine because a totally fine person would push a pen into their skin so hard that it turned red a full inch around the point. _

“I will wash off my arms if you tell me the truth. Are you okay?”

“I'm wonderful.”   
__

_ Bullshit.  _ “ L, I don't believe that for a second.”

“Sorry, can't talk. I don't want to wake up the others.”

“L give me your phone number.”

“What? Why would I do that?”

“You and I both know you're not going to sleep. Give me your phone number.”

“Fine, but only if you wash off your arms immediately after you put it in your phone.”

“We have a deal.”

“830-476-5664.”

  
  


Jay hurried to type the number into his phone and send a message.

**Me:** Okay so are you gonna tell me the truth?

**L:** What are you talking about? Nothing wrong here. Doing absolutely perfect. 

**Me:** come on L

**L:** Fine. I'm not going to go into detail but, I pushed myself too far, and now I’m not doing so great. 

**Me:** is there anything I can do to help?

**L:** Could you distract me?

**Me:** of course 

**Me:** wanna picture of my snake?

**L** : I would appreciate that.

**Me: {** Dante with a hat.jpg}

**Me:** his name is Dante, and he is a lavender corn snake. 

Jay glanced over at Dante’s terrarium grinning and noticing that his snake was looking right back at him. 

“Yeah, yeah I’m grinning like a dumbass while texting a boy. What’s new?” 

**L:** Ooh, that's cool! Is that an Anerythristic lavender? 

**Me:** yeah it is

**L:** Would you like to see a photo of my fish?

**Me:** for sure fish are vibes

**L:** {me and my paradise fish.jpg}

“Holy shit he’s cute!!” Jay turned to look over at Dante once again. Dante looked like a smug mofo who knew what he was doing. Jay quickly turned back to his phone. 

**Me** : looking fin-fucking-tastic  ;) 

Jay couldn’t stop grinning. 

“I truly am a man of many words aren’t I Dante?” The snake had no reaction.

**L:** That's an odd thing to say about my fish.

**Me:** I was saying that about you, adorable dumbass.

**L** : Why would you say that about me?

**Me:** oh, because you’re quite beautiful

**L:** oh.

**Me:** so, how long have you had your fish?

**L:** For about four years. How about your snake?

**Me:** 3 years 

**Me** : and how long have you been staying up this fucking late?

**L:** Uh. Define late? 

**Me:** past 12:00 

**L:** Are we talking like US time or the rest of the world? Because only toddlers are asleep before lunch.

**Me:** you fucking dumbass stop deflecting go to sleep already

**L:** I am not deflecting, merely clarifying your question’s specifics to ensure that we are talking about the same thing. 

**Me:** Go. To. Bed.

**L:** I am currently incapable of going to sleep. Besides, you should also be sleeping, correct? 

**Me:** how are you “incapable” of sleeping? And I was going to go to bed but I had an idea for a thing and want to get it down before I go to sleep

**L:** A thing? Are you an artist of some sort? 

**Me:** not answering my question I see. But to answer yours I write poetry

**L:** A poet, how interesting.

**Me:** ~deflecting~

**L:** Why are you using tildes in front of and behind the word? I have never seen someone send a text like that before.

**Me:** you’re still deflecting and it adds emphasis in kind of a playful way

**L:** What do you mean emphasis? It looks like a toddler is trying to learn Spanish.

**Me:** L stop deflecting. Please, I care about you. What's wrong?

**L:** How could you care about me? You know nothing of me, and our only connection is ink that shows up on our skin or brightly colored graphics filled with letters on our phones. 

_ Calling L… _

Jay leaned back slightly in his chair. He was worried about his soulmate, of course, he was, but this conversation was getting a little stressful. Why did he keep deflecting the questions? Why won’t he talk with any of his soulmates? What is he hiding? 

“The number you are trying to reach cannot answer the phone right now. Please leave a message after the beep.” The aggravatingly loud beep of the voicemail tone went off before immediately being followed by a second message. “Voicemail box full.” 

Jay dragged his hand over his face and set the phone down on the desk before glancing at the screen of his laptop. Virgil’s online on discord. Maybe he will know what to do. Jay typed out a message. 

slimeysnekboi: any tips on how to get L to stop deflecting questions? 

slimeysnekboi: i was texting with him and like I’m pretty worried 

kingofthespiders: if he is deflecting that much maybe he isn’t ready to share yet idk

slimeysnekboi: i’m just worried i mean you saw what he did to his arm i also feel kinda bad because he asked for a distraction but i kinda badgered him about his issue

Kingofthespiders: give him some time he gave you his number and that’s progress and don’t feel too bad you were just worried

slimeysnekboi: i guess it was progress i mean he also sent me a picture of himself

Kingofthespiders: he did what? 

slimeysnekboi: he sent me a picture of himself I mean, it was supposed to be of his fish but he was in it as well

Kingofthespiders: are you gonna send it to me or….? 

Kingofthespiders: you can’t just tell me you have a picture of one of our soulmates and then not send it to me

slimeysnekboi: {img429.jpg} 

Kingofthespiders: wait what

Kingofthespiders: is this a joke?!

slimeysnekboi: no… why would it be a joke?

Kingofthespiders: because i know him, he goes to my school


	4. Patiently Parting and Paving a Path For Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mild anxiety/anxious tendencies.

Virgil stepped out the door to be greeted by the noise of cars whizzing past.  _ You got this, man. He’s your soulmate. He’s gotta like you. And besides, you aren’t asking him out. You’re just letting him know you’re here and willing to talk.  _ He was walking in even strides, timing his steps and making sure he didn’t step on any cracks. He wasn’t very superstitious, but he wasn’t going to take the chance. His mother seemed pretty attached to her back. That’s how the rest of the walk to school went, stuck in thought, trying to reassure himself that everything would turn out fine. 

The bell rang, yelling at students to get to their homeroom class, and Virgil was not ready to confront Logan. The universe always had seemed to force soulmates together, but Virgil had never experienced it this strongly before. Logan Anderson was in his homeroom. At least he was supposed to be. Virgil looked around the room a couple of times, searching for Logan, and became more and more surprised. Logan was the kind of person who showed up to class ten minutes early, and he wasn’t here at all. He would just have to wait till lunch to ask Patton. They were on the volleyball team together, weren’t they? In the meantime, Virgil had to hurry to his seat to get into the classroom before the jocks came in. 

Virgil stepped into the large lunchroom and started searching for Patton and his boyfriend, was his name Ronald? Rupert? Rudyard? He would figure it out. Hopefully, he would introduce himself because no one really knew Virgil, and he didn’t really know anyone either. After a couple minutes of awkward hovering and scanning over the throng of students for faces he had seen a couple of times, he spotted them laughing maniacally at what appeared to be a pudding cup. It was now or never. Virgil walked towards them, dodging lunch trays piled high with mystery meat and orange juice. 

“Um, excuse me, are you Patton?” He asked, looking expectantly at the boy he assumed was Patton. 

“Sure am!! And who might you be?” 

“Oh, uh, I’m Virgil.” 

“Nice to meet you Virgil.” 

“Hey I’m Roman,” the short boy sitting next to Patton said.

“As much as I love meeting new people, is there something I can help you with?” 

“Oh, yeah. Do you happen to know where Logan is? I didn’t see him in class today, and he’s not really the type to miss school..” He said while overcorrecting his glasses then putting them back to how they are supposed to be. Patton’s boyfriend swiveled his head towards Virgil, his eyes wide, suddenly seeming worried about something. 

“You think that I know where Logan Anderson is? What do I look like, his friend?” Patton asked defensively. He had gone from seemingly neutral to perturbed in seconds. Virgil was confused; he thought the volleyball team was all friendly with each other. 

“Oh, sorry, I thought y’all were friends. Do you know where he lives? I want to make sure he’s okay.” Virgil was now rocking back and forth, shifting his weight from his heels to his toes to calm himself. 

“I don’t know, and I’m done talking about Logan,” Patton said somewhat aggressively. Patton turned away from him and forcefully shoved some pudding into his mouth. Roman looked at Virgil sympathetically and mouthed something. Virgil’s eyes quickly focused, but he had missed it. He knew he looked confused. 

“I’ll help you later.” Roman mouthed again. Virgil shifted his stance again, nodding his head at Roman and deciding to walk away. Well, that went smoothly.

At the end of school, Roman was waiting outside, leaning against a pillar and seeming much larger than his five foot two frame should allow for. 

Roman pushed himself off the pillar and walked over to him. “Hey, Virgil, right? Sorry about my boyfriend, he and Logan got in a pretty big fight yesterday, and he’s still upset about it.” 

“Oh, that sucks. From what I had heard about Patton, he is supposedly a really nice dude. So I was surprised when he kinda exploded.” 

“Yeah. If I didn’t know any better, I would think they liked each other or something. They have this awkward tension between them at all times.” Roman joked. “Anyway, Logan wasn’t in any of my classes today either. If you want, we could go check on him. I know where his house is.”

“Yeah... I would appreciate that.”

“Okay, it’s only a few blocks from here. Would you rather we walk or drive? My car is right over there if we need it.”

“We could walk if that’s fine with you?” Virgil said nervously, wringing his hands, he didn't want to be stuck in a vehicle with a person he didn't know well. Roman simply nodded and started walking away from the school, motioning for Virgil to follow him. Right after leaving the school grounds, they turned left into a well-kept residential neighborhood. Roman was humming to a song from Frozen the Musical, a show that Virgil will definitely not confess to watching. Virgil was taking in the neighborhood. It was strange that he was so close to his soulmate and had just never realized before.  For the rest of the walk, Virgil focused on the calming humming coming from Roman. 

“This is it,” Roman said while pointing at the house on their left. A simple but relatively large green house with a fenced-in yard and small garden. 

The two of them walked up the carefully maintained path to the door. Roman reached the door first, stretching on his tiptoes to hit the doorbell before nudging Virgil with his elbow. 

“Don’t look so worried. It’s just Logan. Worse thing that happens is he asks us to leave, or he isn’t home.” Virgil tried to figure out the words to say to respond to Roman’s statement. He hadn’t explained why it was so important to check on Logan or how many things could go wrong in this situation. Apparently, no response was needed, though. Before Virgil could get the words out, the door opened to reveal Logan himself looking exhausted, uncharacteristically unkempt, and utterly confused. 


End file.
